Orcs
ORC CULTURE Orc culture is built around one thing – power. The Orc god Karthax is a god who only respects and favors the powerful. He only bestows his blessings on the few orcs powerful enough to endure a prolonged rite of passage into the wilderness or the underdark where either the orc dies or he is blessed with the shamanic powers of Karthax. The orc preoccupation with power makes them seem like a brutal and savage people compared to their fellow sentients. But all the apparent cruelty that orcs visit upon one another is to make the people as a whole stronger. This perspective was one chosen out of necessity. The orcs are one of the oldest races on Tarth, but their relatively short life span, and the environments in which they dwelled demanded they weed out the weak and become as mighty as possible. In ancient times orcs lived in the forests and mountains of Tarth, but the elves were prejudiced against the ugliness of the orcs and saw them as an abomination that needed to be eradicated from the planet. Thus they waged war on the orcs and pushed them into the mountains and underdark where they were too difficult to hunt. This harsh environment has only made the orcs stronger over time. Unfortunately for the orcs, dwarves had already claimed these places as their own. So the orcs ran from one fight into another. But the dwarves were not as numerous as the elves and the orcs were better able to hold their own against their future nemesis. They carved out a place for themselves in the harsh environs in which they found themselves and began to build in strength. One side effect of the orcish worship of power is that it causes great divides in the various tribes. Mighty warriors fight amongst themselves to see who has the greatest strength and skill, and when two are equally matched, they usually split off from a tribe to form their own tribe with their followers, only to return later and go to war with one another. While the other races see the orc in-fighting as the single greatest factor holding them back from becoming a true force in the world, it is in fact the reason the orcs have survived as long as they have. The constant warfare and the brutality of life in the mountains and underdark have tempered the orcish spirit, making them worthy of their foes, and a match for the harsh environment. Much like the White Towns to the North, the orcs are in a constant process of refining their bloodlines by weeding out the weak. Orc family life is just as brutal as every other aspect of their life. Most children are born through rape, as orcish women strive to only have the strongest mate, and require their men be strong enough to fight off other suitors and strong enough to force her to succumb. Once conquered the female orc continually tests her mate, either through direct mistreatment or by attracting and soliciting the attentions of other strong males. Family life is an ongoing battle for everyone involved. Children are taught to fight at a very young age, and the brood is forced to fight over food and other resources. An orc never knows love or compassion, and he sees these “virtues” as supreme weaknesses. The best an orc can expect to obtain from others is fear, respect, and honor. For despite their brutal natures, the orcs have a strong sense of honor, and cowardly tactics and behavior is met with scorn, and often death. Orc tribes are run by what can best be called a wolf-pack mentality. There is a precise pecking order determined through duels and other physical challenges. Each orc knows his place in the order, and so long as he or she is honorable in his or her approach, there is no disgrace in being lower on the pole. Despite their constant struggling against each other, orc tribes present a seamless, unified front to any opponent, be they other races or other tribes. There is no unifying orc authority, or anything resembling an orcish nation. However, from time to time throughout history a mighty orc has tried uniting the clans with varying degrees of success. Besides a philosophy or brutal practicality, orcs share the worship of Karthax. Surprisingly the rites of worship are almost identical from tribe to tribe, sharing the same brutal and often bloody routines. Despite human ideologies to the contrary the shamans of the orcish people are more than hedge mages. They are priests of their people, mighty in the ways of their sorcerous magics. Orcish magic is spiritual in nature and is built around domination of powerful spirits, and forcing their secrets out of them, or binding them in fetishes and totems. But this dependency upon spirits does not negate the fact that an orc needs to impress Karthax before he is given the spiritual marking of authority to enter the spirit world and be taken seriously by the spirits in the first place. Anything beyond that he must earn through his own sweat and blood.